On a Balcony at Night
by smarty007
Summary: I don't own Shakespeare's stuff. I just like it a lot.


Disclaimer: nope... don't own it... *sniffle*  
  
Thanks to you all who've replied to my 1st story! It means a lot to me that people would go out of their way to tell me their opinions. I hope this one is okay. I didn't intend for it to be a sequel to my last one, but it kinda turned out to fit with it. Eh, think what you will.  
  
CRASH!!!  
  
"Mother GOOSE! What in the sam hill is goin' on up there, Girl?" came the bellowing irate shout after a mighty swig of Yahoo. The irritated middle- aged man didn't appreciate it when somebody had the nerve to interrupt his endless viewing of the late night "Wheel."  
  
"Nothing BOB!" retorted a disgruntled voice from upstairs. Attempting to talk softer, she began to pace and raised her arms towards the sky. The frenzied girl muttered to herself, "Great... I wonder HOW long until those two excuses for parents discover my tributes to 'Alfred'... I practically give myself away EVERY time I do one of those tantric spell things..." Being 17 never daunted Helga's worship rituals for a second. In fact, the curious habit seemed to grow more obsessive each year...  
  
"Well GET IN BED then! You're not going to get good grades if you're late for school!"  
  
"SURE THING BOB! Grrr..."  
  
Figuring she was finished for the night, Helga prepared to go to bed, but not without scribbling one last hasty thought into one of her countless pink notebooks. Sighing a little girlishly for her reputation, she turned off her light, flung herself onto her bed, long hair streaming out behind her, and was about to take a voyage somewhere over the rainbow to dreamland (where she knew she would have a few encounters with a certain beloved...) when she was startled by a tapping noise. Detecting that the sound came from her window, she turned her light back on and cautiously crept towards it and peeked out...  
  
And leapt backwards, clapping a hand over her mouth to stifle a shrill scream. EEE! I CAN'T BELIEVE I DECIDED THAT I JUST HAD TO WEAR MY MOST GIRLISH ALMOST TRANSPARENT PAJAMAS TONIGHT... WHAT WAS I THINKING? THIS IS SO EMBARASSING... She cursed herself for being so daring. Perched in the tree outside her window was none other than her football-headed love god. "Oh Arnold," making sure she was out of sight from the window, she clasped her hands and, dreamily sighing, held them to her chin, "How I despise you, how your presence tortures my very soul, how you always manage to sneak up on me at the most inappropriate times when I talk about you to myself--man... no WONDER I need a shrink--but how could anyone of this planet find you less than enchanting and delightful? How could I not be infatuated, in love with every single fiber of your being? Whoa, gotta lay off the incense--didn't realize I've gotten so carried away with all this devoted worshiping."  
  
Helga peered around to the window again and saw Arnold wave hyperly, having finally spotted her. She shook her fist at him, not too seriously though, before slowly pushing the window open, hoping that the noise wouldn't disturb her family. "WHAT are you DOING here?" she hissed so as to make as little sound as possible. She glanced back and forth, trying to partially conceal her more girlish figure behind the wall as Arnold wondered what she was doing. Well, he HAD known the girl since he was three! And it wasn't the first time he'd seen her in frilly pink PJs, although he thought them to be especially adorable tonight.  
  
"Hey Helga!" he said like it was a perfectly normal habit to go knocking on people's windows in the middle of the night to chat. "Sorry about scaring you--"  
  
"Scare? Me? Don't know what you're talking about," she said, crossing her arms and tapping her foot impatiently in answer to Arnold's knowing look. "And you haven't answered my question yet! What are you doing here? Don't you think it was a little bold to be climbing up my tree in the middle of the night? When I said 'secret relationship,' I didn't mean to get all Romeo on me." At that ironic statement, both chuckled a little.  
  
"Well, to make a long story short, Oskar and Suzie got into another um, 'discussion' and this time Suzie didn't miss."  
  
Helga laughed softly. "Wait, lemme guess. Shards of glass lying all over the place and imbedded in the walls? Lots of blood and gore, junk like that?"  
  
"Basically. Grandpa almost lost what's left of his mind trying to sort it all out."  
  
"Like there was anything upstairs to begin with--"  
  
"Ha, ha. At least Oskar said he was sorry, at any rate. Not that that means much from Oskar... So anyway, I got sent on a 'mission' to the store for some bandages and gauze and stuff, and since I was passing your house on the way back, I figured that I might as well say goodnight, since I didn't get a chance to call you during all that uh... 'trouble in paradise.'"  
  
Helga almost started swooning, oh how he was so considerate, compassionate, wanting to talk to her, and noble and delicious and... she almost slapped herself, and would have had she been alone. If Arnold noticed anything, he hid it well behind those half-closed green eyes and small smile on his calm face. Of course, he knew exactly where Helga was coming from, after all those years of slamming into her around corners and glimpsing the hidden, gooey inside. Thinking about her vulnerability made him feel a little weird, so he quickly pushed the thought to the back of his mind.  
  
"So... then uh, goodnight, Arnold." She hesitated for about a millisecond before her blue eyes sparked, then she wickedly grinned and leaned out over the window ledge, beckoning him towards her with her finger.  
  
It was astounding how Arnold managed to lean forward on the barely supportive branch and not plummet to the hard concrete below, but manage it he did. Placing one hand delicately on Helga's thin shoulder, holding onto the tree with the other, he leaned towards the window. Slowly and gently his and Helga's lips met. All of Helga's tenseness and harshness dissolved away. Arnold found himself yearning to spend eternity locked in this exhilarating moment. If there were such beings as star-crossed lovers, the two golden-haired teens would perfectly fit the description. The emotions that surged through that infinitesimal, yet entirely significant, tender touch would fill and overflow a black hole if given the opportunity. Shivers raced up and down their spines, and they eagerly lost themselves in the kiss.  
  
Suddenly remembering that he needed to get home to tend to his slightly insane family (ok, completely insane), Arnold pulled away gradually, bitterly wishing that he didn't have to leave. Helga appeared to be feeling the same, he could see it in those cosmic blue eyes, but Arnold knew that he couldn't do anything that would cause her pain, not now. Like she'd permit him to anyway (Arnold didn't like the prospect of a broken jaw), but that wasn't the point...  
  
"Goodnight, my beautiful Juliet..." he said softly, climbing back down to the ground.  
  
"Till we meet again, Prince Bucko..." came the predictable reply, but shockingly with no detectable bite whatsoever.  
  
"Way to ruin a perfectly good moment, Helga," he said rolling those green eyes as he lightly jumped to the ground from the last overhanging tree branch, stooping to pick up the bags of first-aid items he had purchased from the Quicky-Mart down the block. But Helga's almost unconquerable nature was exactly the way Arnold loved it--it was always a fascinating subject to quench his ever-thirsty curiosity--and he wouldn't change Helga's attitude for the world.  
  
"Hey, hey, hey! I wasn't the one who picked the weirdest moment to barge in on somebody and take time away from her precious beauty sleep!"  
  
"You did seem pretty pleased to see me though..." he retorted up to her. "And I don't think it's possible for you to get any more beautiful--" and taking advantage of the safety of the ground, "or sexy for that matter." Arnold grinned a little wickedly himself, although his attempts to be naughty still failed to compare to Helga's great skills.  
  
Suddenly remembering about her scanty choice of apparel, Helga hastily crossed her arms and snapped, "Stop tryin' to butter me up Hair-Boy. Flattery won't get you squat!"  
  
"Whatever you say, Helga," he chuckled.  
  
"You got it Football-Head! Oh crap... I think I hear Bob coming up the stairs--you could mistake that stomping noise for a stampede of wild animals." She hurriedly blew him a kiss, and before he could return it, she flew back into her bedroom. After about a second, her head popped back through the window, "Call me!"  
  
"You know I will! Sweet dreams, Helga."  
  
"Can you possibly guess who they'll be about?"  
  
"So you HAVE been seeing someone else behind my back! I bet it's Stinky!"  
  
"Shut up!" she laughed. "You know I only attempted that stunt to make you jealous. Uh oh, I gotta go! You better high-tail it home yourself or you'll be like a red target to an extremely perturbed bull. See ya Arnold!" She disappeared again. Her light quickly clicked off and Arnold knew it was probably a pretty close call.  
  
Hoping Helga didn't get busted too horribly, he started to carry the shopping-bags home, longingly looking forward to his next encounter with his angelically beautiful, yet fiercely scandalous counterpart. 


End file.
